


Lightning Rod

by ArgentLives



Series: Across Every Universe (You are Home) [28]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e21 The Runaway Dinosaur, F/M, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentLives/pseuds/ArgentLives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, he'll always find his way back home to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning Rod

**Author's Note:**

> written before ep 2x21; didn't quite go down like this but hey--so much barriscowest goodness either way
> 
> this is kinda barriscowest if you squint (that's what i had in mind writing it and honestly the canon episode was SO barriscowest) but i won't tag it like that because i don't want to mistag anything and it's v short

The night she watches Barry Allen die, his face twisting up in pain and disintegrating while all she could do was stand by and stare in horror, she doesn’t remember going home. It’s not really that anyway, she knows—her home is a boy with lanky limbs and a too-big heart, and he—that’s gone now, had been ripped away from her in seconds. But somehow she’s lying awake in her bed, staring up at the ceiling and feeling too much and numb all at once, and she doesn’t remember getting here. 

She doesn’t remember much from the past…however long it’s been since—since he—since it happened. She remembers sobbing into her dad’s chest, she remembers banging against the glass Barry had di—disappeared behind, so hard her knuckles had bled and her hands are still bruised, though she hardly feels it. She remembers not wanting to leave, refusing to leave, a hand on her shoulder, and—the rest is a blur.

Her dad must have taken her home, and she has vague memories of him tucking her in like he used to when she was just a little girl, the pain in her chest reflected back at her in the tears in his eyes and the hard lines of his face. She remembers him saying something—leaving, going back to STAR Labs to check up on—on who?

Wally. That’s right, something happened to Wally and Jesse, they’re still unconscious, just like Barry had been when—

A sob catches in her throat, and she wonders why her dad brought her back here in the first place, because she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to sleep again, won’t be able to close her eyes without seeing his face fading away right in front of her. But even as she’s thinking it, as she squeezes her eyes shut with _‘I’m okay, Iris’_ echoing endlessly in her ears, she feels heavy and tired in a way she’s never felt before. Her body doesn’t seem to want to face reality any more than her mind does, and everything start to shut down. The world goes blissfully dark.

* * *

She knows she can’t have been asleep for long when she’s forcing herself awake, eyes snapping open and chest heaving in almost-painful gasps as she struggles to slow the racing of her heart. It takes her a solid few minutes to get a handle on herself, sweat cooling on her forehead and eyes heavy with tears, and it’s only then that she realizes it wasn’t actually a nightmare that woke her up.

She remembers it in fragments, just bits and pieces she now clings desperately to. Barry talking to her in a strange place she didn’t recognize, looking miraculously unharmed, bright and powerful, pure light and crackling energy. _Alive_. And taking her hand, telling her something, something…

There’s something heavy in the air, something making the hair on her arms stand on end and leaves her feeling breathless and—there. There’s a faint buzz that starts at her fingertips and curls in tendrils up her arms, warm and reassuring, ending in a spark that’s not painful but makes her gasp nonetheless, because it’s…familiar. She knows that feeling, that electricity at her fingertips, she’s felt it twice before, and suddenly she knows, she _knows_ —

“Hello?” Cisco picks up far too quickly for someone who should be asleep at this hour, his voice raw and tired and broken, and Iris imagines him lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, just as lost as she’d been feeling not even five minutes ago when she’d first woken up. Except— _except_ —

“Cisco,” she says into her phone, holding it unsteadily between her cheek and shoulder, wetting the screen with the tears she hasn’t bothered to wipe from her face, as she pulls on her coat with still-shaking fingers. “I need you to meet me at STAR Labs now, right now, I need you to—” she swallows thickly, momentarily losing her voice at the relief crawling up her throat, at the sheer hope bubbling up in her chest. “I just need you to be there. And bring those Vibe goggles of yours.”

A pause, and then, “Iris, what…?”

“Barry is alive,” she breathes, the phantom touch still lingering on her skin, her blood feeling electric in her veins, and even as she says it, even as something at the back of her mind starts to warn her not to get her hopes up, warns her she’s setting herself up for more heartbreak—she’s sure.

She hears a shaky breath over the line as she clambers into her car and puts the key in ignition, knowing she’s about to break every traffic law imaginable and not even close to caring. Cisco is silent for a beat, like he’s struggling to wrap his head around it, and she feels her impatience building even though she knows she can’t blame him. “How—what—how do you—?”

“I—I can’t really explain it Cisco I just—I know, okay? He’s alive, he’s just—he’s lost. And I need your help, please, we need to—we need to bring him back now, you can help me bring him home. _Help me bring him home.”_

“Okay,” Cisco says, and she can hear the rustle of sheets, his feet hitting the floor. There’s hope in his voice, cautious and fragile and shaking with emotion, and she breathes a sigh of relief when he doesn’t question her further. “Okay.”


End file.
